Specific activities often require specialized shoes such as cleated shoes for soccer and baseball, cycling shoes for rode biking, and hard plastic boots for skiing. While these shoes are optimized for their intended use, after the activity is finished these specialized shoes often provide poor traction and will damage and/or soil common flooring such as carpet. Typically the specialized shoes are removed after use in their intended activity, however this requires the user to carry two sets of shoes and also requires the removal of the specialized shoe. Removal of the specialized shoe can be problematic and time consuming if the shoe, such as a ski boot, has numerous fine adjustments and the user intends on returning to the activity in the near future.
Patent Application No. US20120285045 discloses a “removable cleat protector for a cycling shoe having a cleat with particular size and shape attached thereto.” However, the item disclosed only covers the cleat of a specialized shoe and it would be difficult for a user to walk in the covered shoe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,488 discloses “a shoe cleat protective device that includes a sole portion of flexible material including in its upper surface a plurality of spaced recesses in the pattern of the cleat of a shoe.” The U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,488 discloses a shoe cover with a sole pattern that matches the pattern of the specialized shoe. A specialized pattern creates problems when the shoe has mud on it, or if the user replaces the shoe with one having a non-matching cleat pattern.